December 14, 2025<\/a>Share<\/p>\nUpdated at\u00a005.08 EST<\/p>\n
Sir Keir Starmer is \u201cnot going,\u201d Shabana Mahmood insisted as she conceded \u201cevery single person\u201d has thought about the top job.<\/p>\n
Asked whether she would run for the leadership if the Prime Minister stepped down, the Home Secretary told the BBC\u2019s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show: \u201cWell, Keir Starmer is not going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked again, she said: \u201cEvery single person has thought about it, of course they have, but that is not the same as plotting to overthrow a Prime Minister for God\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Prime Minister is getting on with doing his job. I am a member of his Government. I have a big job of my own to do, and that is the only thing I\u2019m focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Prime minister Keir Starmer steps out from 10 Downing Street to welcome prime minister of Belgium Bart De Wever ahead of their meeting in London, United Kingdom on December 12, 2025. <\/span> Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz\/Future Publishing\/Getty ImagesShare<\/p>\nShabana Mahmood has said everyone in Labour has a \u201crole to play\u201d in supporting the Government, amid fresh speculation about Andy Burnham\u2019s ambitions.<\/p>\n
The home secretary was asked about reports that the Greater Manchester Mayor is seeking a return to the Commons, which allies of Mr Burnham have not denied.<\/p>\n
She told Sky News\u2019s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme: \u201cWell, I think that, and again, I was on your show, just saying this a few weeks ago… Labour governments don\u2019t come along very often, and every minute that we have in government is precious.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to be in government. I\u2019m focused on the big job that I have as home secretary, and my advice to all colleagues everywhere would be that it\u2019s a precious privilege, and we mustn\u2019t waste a single minute of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.<\/span> Photograph: Ryan Jenkinson\/Getty ImagesShare<\/p>\nThe home secretary has said the government was not \u201cdemonising\u201d young boys in trying to tackle violence against women and girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is not on the young boys themselves, this is on all of us as a society\u201d, Shabana Mahmood told Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC. \u201cWe have seen huge changes in the social media environment and the sorts of influences that are pervasive across the childhoods of both our boys and our girls in this country and it is for us as a government and a society to decide what we do about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not on children to sort out, this is not about demonising our children, it is about protecting our children, it is about making sure we raise our children in an environment where they can be healthy, where they can be successful, where they can rise as far as their talents take them, that is the dream we have as a Labour government.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Leading barristers have warned the justice secretary David Lammy that plans to cut a right of appeal from the magistrates court is \u201cprofoundly dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n
Lammy\u2019s proposals, which include curtailing the right to jury trial for all but the most serious offences, also include a plan to remove the automatic right to appeal against a decision made by magistrates to the crown court, in a bid to cut the backlog.<\/p>\n
Ed Henry KC, who represented postmasters in the Post Office Horizon scandal, told the Sunday Times: \u201cThe scrapping of automatic appeals to magistrates\u2019 courts\u2019 decisions is profoundly dangerous \u2026 Everyone accepts that justice in the magistrates\u2019 courts can be hit and miss.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy speaking during the launch of the Government’s anti-corruption strategy at home and abroad to strengthen national security and drive growth, at Mansion House in London. <\/span> Photograph: Lucy North\/PAShare<\/p>\nShabana Mahmood said that any strikes in the NHS \u201cundoubtedly\u201d put lives at risk.<\/p>\n
Asked what she thought of how doctors had dealt with the dispute, the Home Secretary told Sky News\u2019 Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: \u201cI think it\u2019s undoubtedly the case that strikes in the NHS do put lives at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that the NHS is supported through a difficult winter and through this particular flu outbreak that we\u2019re seeing at the moment, and I just think it\u2019s really important that everybody realises what\u2019s at stake here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think there\u2019s a bit of a difference between the stance that the leadership of the resident doctors has taken and the individual views of those doctors themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cThese are very hard-working public servants, but they have seen the best deal of anyone in the public sector.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Society ‘very far to the other side of what is acceptable’ in misogynist freedom of speech<\/h2>\n
The home secretary has said society is \u201cvery far to the other side of what is acceptable\u201d in terms of freedom of speech which is misogynist.<\/p>\n
Shabana Mahmood was asked by Trevor Phillips on Sky News whether the government was crossing a line in trying to clamp down on young men being interested in misogynist influences like Andrew Tate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is always going to be a line but we are very far to the other side of what is acceptable of that line at the moment\u201d, Mahmood said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is right that we think about how we give schools and parents the tools they need to make sure they are raising boys who will grow to be healthy young men in their own right, with a good understanding of what a healthy relationship is.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important that the state takes some action, because we are not willing to just sit back and accept that VAWG is just a fact of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Shabana Mahmood leaving Downing Street, London. Specialist rape and sex offences investigators will be introduced to every police force as part of reforms to be introduced under the Government’s violence against women and girls (Vawg) strategy. <\/span> Photograph: James Manning\/PAShare<\/p>\nUpdated at\u00a004.19 EST<\/p>\n
The flu outbreak is \u201cvery serious\u201d and resident doctors should accept the deal on offer to avert strike action as the NHS is under \u201chuge strain\u201d, Shabana Mahmood said.<\/p>\n
Asked how serious the outbreak was, the home secretary told Trevor Phillips on Sky News: \u201cIt is very serious, we\u2019re already seeing the impact it\u2019s having on hospitals across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always plan every single year for a flu outbreak and that\u2019s what happened this year. But of course, I think the numbers are a bit more serious this year and that\u2019s why the Health Secretary, the Prime Minister and everyone across Government wants to make sure that the planned strikes by resident doctors do not go ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NHS is under huge strain at the moment, and the last thing anybody needs to see are strikes in the NHS.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Victims of sexual offences face ‘postcode lottery’ with police, says home secretary<\/h2>\n
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said victims of sexual offences face \u201ca postcode lottery\u201d in terms of how the police will deal with their report.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a postcode lottery at the moment if you are a victim in terms of the standard of service you are going to get when your allegation is being investigated by the police and whether that is going to lead to charges ultimately and hopefully a successful prosecution\u201d, Mahmood told Trevor Phillips on Sky News.<\/p>\n
The home secretary was responding to claims from the Institute for Government that currently up to 50 per cent of police officers currently on sexual violence and rape squads are trainees. She said the government plans to get a specialist squad in ever force.<\/p>\n
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Updated at\u00a004.04 EST<\/p>\n
Good morning, we will be following all the latest developments in UK politics this Sunday. The home secretary Shabana Mahmood and the new boss of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson will be speaking to the BBC this morning. We are also expecting Mahmood and her opposite number, Conservative shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, to speak to Sky News. Some updates so far this weekend:<\/p>\n
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Kemi Badenoch says the Conservatives will abandon plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 if they win the next election. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the Tory leader described electric vehicle quotas as \u201ceconomic self-harm\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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Sir Keir Starmer condemned the two-child benefit cap as a \u201cfailed social experiment\u201d, accusing the previous government of having \u201cpunished working families and directly pushed hundreds of thousands of children into poverty\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has called on the Conservatives to maintain the cross-party consensus on gender identity services built before the last election in a letter to Kemi Badenoch. Streeting wrote to opposition leader on Friday urging her to \u201ctake the heat and the ideology\u201d out of debate amid controversy over a puberty blocker trial for children.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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Starmer is poised to choose a new ambassador to Washington from a shortlist of three as relations with the US are tested over Ukraine and Donald Trump\u2019s attacks on European leaders. The prime minister held interviews with three finalists for the role this week, the Guardian has learned, with Downing Street preparing to make an appointment before the end of the year.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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Leading organisations have criticised the development of the government\u2019s flagship violence against women and girls strategy, calling the process chaotic, haphazard and \u201cworse than under the Tories\u201d. Ministers are gearing up for a policy announcement blitz before the publication of the long-awaited plan next week.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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